cute icons and caffeine
Linked via boing boing today, a site that compiles 300 icons from 1800 sites into categories of usage. Very cute and interesting.
I've designed a few icons for different websites and applications, and it's always a fun problem to solve. What can you make, given a limited palette and a tiny canvas, that is immediately identifiable yet fits within the design of the larger space it appears in?
One set I created for an art class never made it to the light of day because I was too busy to finish. The assignment was to make a sort of daily diary of things we did, so I took notes on my caffeine intake and planned to track it graphically. Not nearly as art-sexy as documenting drugs and alcohol.
Here for your viewing pleasure is a week in April 2001:
Compare with a week now, where free work-supplied caffeine is consumed out of boredom and lack of motivation:
berry wrap top
The final project assignment for my sewing class was a reversible vest. Who the heck wears a vest these days? Middle-aged ladies who like to paint watercolor flowers?
I decided to make a wrap top instead, using McCall's pattern 4384 (red polka-dot lady in picture below). I altered the pattern quite a bit, since it's not reversible; took off sleeves, redrew armhole and side lines, thinned the ties, and shortened the length. Fabric chosen was a very cute wild strawberry patterned fabric and a matching dark raspberry red from JoAnns.
It has a tendency to gape at the V a bit -- I will have to make sure to wear clearly visible tank tops underneath so that people don't think I'm exposing myself. I like wearing it berry-side-out better, the gathers at the shoulders make me look fat (or rather, more fat) when I wear it red-side-out.
Notes to self next time I make this: Don't shorten (thought it looked frumpy long, but now it looks too cropped), take in side under armhole an inch or so, find way to reduce gaping.
bumpyfont patent application
During my carefree research-filled years at school, I came up with a really neat idea called bumpyfont and decided it to patent it. With the help of a very excellent how-to book, a present from dad, I filed a provisional application last year (PPA, a sort of dibs for the future patent) on exactly one year after my masters thesis was complete. If I had waited any longer, the application would have been invalid. With that, I bought myself another year to refine and hone the real patent into a thing of sublime beauty. Ha.
I knew this final year deadline was coming up soon, so last night, at 10pm on May 16th, I sat down to take a look at my files and documents and start up the thing. To my horror, I saw that I had filed the PPA last year on, guess what, May 16th 2003.
BUT!
The god of procrastination smiled down on me and the handy-dandy book told me that it was a-okay, because if a year is up on a weekend, then you can use the next business day. For this year, my deadline was actually May 17th. I hope I didn't use up all the good karma I'm allotted.
True to my procrastinator roots, I stayed up late last night writing claims, touching up specs, redoing drawings and filling out forms. And...
My patent application for bumpyfont is officially in the mail and filed as of today, two years after completing the masters thesis that generated this idea.
a rose first
My first rose has finally produced its first lavender-pink-silver bloom; success! It smells sweetly of lychees.
It took only three days to open fully from a tightly scrolled bud to what you see above. Hopefully the next bud on the way will last longer.
Notes on this rose:
It's a Sterling Silver hybrid tea, purchased bareroot (J&P brand), one of the mauves, and very fragrant. It is also notoriously finicky and prone to disease, but so far, it's only been attacked by aphids and rose slugs which I have picked by hand. In the future, when we actually have land, I want to plant Double Delight and Graham Thomas.
Notes on taking care of container roses:
We went to a fair today sponsored by Sunset magazine. They had amazing huge Sunset Celebration hybrid teas in big pots all over the place. The guy in the test garden there said that when he planted them, they were bareroot, and he used a mixture of potting soil, fancy soil, worm casings, chicken manure, etc. He feeds them once every 6 weeks, to coincide with their bloom cycles, and prunes in the fall.
Note of randomness:
We also saw the very cool pre-fab Glidehouse at the Sunset fair. Decorated perfectly with all sorts of designer modern furniture and accessories.
drawstring pants
Finished these pants several weeks ago; figured I should post them since I have another finished sewing project that needs to be posted soon.
These are for my 2nd project for the beginner sewing class I'm taking M eve at Caņada College. It is a very very good class, taught by an awesome guy. Who wouldn't want a shiny-headed milliner and ex-ballet dancer with a penchant for green teaching them the basics of sewing?
Anyhow, back to the pants -- fabric purchased in the quilting section of Jo-ann's, pattern is McCall's 2101, using view C as a full-length pant; not sure. I ended up only slightly altering the pattern to lengthen the crotch/shorten leg (does that mean I have a big butt and stubby legs?). I think it ended up kind of baggy, but others say it looks fine, so hey. It's got pockets!
here is another pic.
